This year's Masters tournament, the season's first major golf championship, has been postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak, Augusta National Golf Club chairman Fred Ridley announced Friday.
"Considering the latest information and expert analysis, we have decided at this time to postpone the Masters tournament," Ridley said in a statement.
The outbreak, which has prompted a virtual shutdown of American sport, also forced Ridley to postpone the Augusta National Women's Amateur and youth Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals.
"Ultimately, the health and well-being of everyone associated with these events and the citizens of the Augusta community led us to this decision," Ridley said.
"We hope this postponement puts us in the best position to safely host the Masters tournament and our amateur events at some later date."
Augusta National typically closes soon after hosting the world's top players, reopening later each year, so the possibility remains that it could be rescheduled later in the year, potentially in the autumn after the 2019-20 US PGA season is complete given the schedule already booked through August.
The US PGA Tour has canceled this week's Players Championship and every other tune-up event for the original Masters date, leaving its next event currently on the calendar as the Heritage tournament, set to start on April 16.
The next major championship on the schedule is now the PGA Championship on May 14-17 at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco, an area having been especially hard hit by coronavirus cases already.
"Unfortunately, the ever-increasing risks associated with the widespread coronavirus COVID-19 have led us to a decision that undoubtedly will be disappointing to many, although I am confident is appropriate under these unique circumstances," Ridley said.
"We will continue to work with the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Office of the Governor, the Georgia Department of Public Health, the City of Augusta and all other local authorities."
Ridley asked for patience from Masters patrons.
"We will share any additional information as soon as it becomes available," he said. "As COVID-19 continues to impact the lives of people everywhere, we seek your understanding of this decision and know you share our concern given these trying times."
The Masters has been played every year since 1945, when the British Open was the only men's golf major contested.
The event, which began in 1934, was halted from 1943-1945 due to World War II.
'A wise decision'
Jack Nicklaus, whose record 18 major titles include six Masters green jackets, backed Ridley's decision.
"I don't think anybody wants to go to Augusta and get sick," Nicklaus said. "People come to the Masters from all over the world and the chances of somebody bringing something there are great.
"I think they made a wise decision and I support it."
Nicklaus, 80, serves as an honorary Masters starter each year. He said it would have been "strange" to stage the event without spectators.
He also doubted the Masters would be played this year even at a later date.
"I can't see any way they would play it at a later date. It wouldn't be fair to any other tournament," Nicklaus said. "I think we're going to miss the Masters this year."
Nicklaus continues with plans to host his US PGA Memorial tournament two weeks before June's US Open but understands much remains uncertain.
"Who knows what it's going to be a month or six weeks from now? I'm hoping this thing dies down as the warm weather comes on and we can resume," Nicklaus said.
"We don't know. For us to be smart, I think we need to take a step back. We don't need to panic. We need to do the things we're supposed to do and not spread it."
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Tiger Woods' victory at the Masters golf tournament on Sunday, his first major victory since 2008, is expected to lift sales for sponsors, broadcasters and golf courses lucky enough to host a tournament with Woods playing.
The competition put the 43-year-old back on top of a sport he helped transform 25 years ago.
"Tiger sells golf," says Eric Smallwood, president of Apex Marketing Group, Inc., a Michigan analytics firm. Apex found that Nike earned $22.5 million worth of brand exposure just from Woods’ final round, with Nike’s "Swoosh" logo splashed on his hat, shirt, pants and shoes. Nike stock was up about one percent on Monday.
Tournament broadcaster CBS Corp saw a ratings bump. Based on preliminary data, the final round of Sunday's tournament was the highest-rated morning golf broadcast since 1986, when CBS started collecting that data. The tournament, which is usually broadcast in the afternoon, was rescheduled to the morning because of weather.
CBS has the rights to the PGA Championship in May and expects prices for advertising time that is still available to rise as a result of Woods' Masters victory, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The golf demographic is wealthier and better-educated than other sports fans, so TV ratings are valued more highly because they’re more apt to turn into sales, even of big-ticket items, said Neal Pilson, president of Pilson Communications and former president of CBS Sports.
“Historically, events where Tiger Woods is on leaderboards on Sunday generated 30 to 40 percent higher ratings in the United States for those tournaments,” Pilson said.
MAKINGS OF A COMEBACK
Woods was a 20-year-old prodigy when he turned pro in 1996. Less than a year later he was ranked No. 1 in the world. He struck lucrative endorsement deals - including a five-year, $40 million deal with Nike - and golf experienced a surge in popularity.
Then Woods' personal life collapsed and with it, his brand. In 2009, after the news of multiple infidelities, he lost endorsement deals with companies like AT&T Inc and Accenture Plc. Other sponsors, such as Procter & Gamble Co's Gillette and Berkshire Hathaway Inc's NetJets, kept their contracts with Woods but stopped using him in marketing.
Four back surgeries later, Woods continued to suffer professionally and in the public eye. In 2017 police arrested him for driving under the influence; he pleaded guilty to reckless driving and entered a program for first-time offenders.
In 2018 Woods began a professional comeback that culminated at Sunday's Masters. After his victory, Nike, which stood behind Woods throughout his darker years, posted an ad on its website titled “Tiger Woods: Same Dream."
“In sports you have heroes, villains and underdogs," said Benjamin Hordell, founder of digital marketing and advertising firm DXagency. "Tiger has lived all of it. That’s amazing from a storytelling perspective. People will root against him, but they’re watching."
On Monday U.S. President Donald Trump said he would award Woods the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
(Reporting by Helen Coster and Hilary Russ. Additional reporting by Sheila Dang. Editing by Kenneth Li and Cynthia Osterman)
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Tiger Woods celebrates on the 18th hole after winning the 2019 Masters in Augusta, Georgia, U.S.A. on Sunday. The win marks an epic comeback to golf's grand stage after an 11-year drought huddled by injuries, personal problems and a divorce.
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DUBAI -- Rory McIlroy said Wednesday that he will take a new approach to winning the Masters for the first time by slashing his Augusta support team which has ballooned to almost 20 people in recent years.
The four-time major champion needs to win the Green Jacket at Augusta National to complete a career grand slam, having already won the British Open, US Open and the PGA Championship. The Masters starts April 5-8.
Speaking on the eve of the $3 million Dubai Desert Classic, the 28-year-old Northern Irishman said: "One of the things I am planning to do is have less of an entourage around me at Augusta and treat it as any other tournament.
"In previous years, I’ve had seven people staying at my house and rented another house for 10 others. It becomes a production. Some people won’t be happy with me, but hey, I don’t mind if I win the Masters."
McIlroy said he will not get distracted by his attempts to break his Masters duck.
"I think I’ve got seven events from now until the Masters, so I’m sort of taking it week-by-week at this point. Once April starts, or the first time I go up there and play a couple of practice rounds, I’ll start to think about Augusta," he added.
“Right now it’s just about getting myself in a nice bit of form and playing tournaments and playing well. Come March time, I’ll turn my attention to it and start to focus on maybe shots that I need or different clubs I might need in my bag or whatever it is.
"Right now my focus is on the Dubai Desert Classic and trying to win here for the third time."
McIlroy said his expectations were higher in Dubai after playing well down the road in Abu Dhabi where he finished tied for third on his comeback last week.
“Obviously, really happy with how everything went last week. If anything, I could have driven it a little straighter on the last day and given myself some more shots from the fairways to attack some pins, but really happy with how everything went and looking forward to getting back out there this week,” said McIlroy, who shot 18-under par last week.
“I have a lot of good memories here at the Majlis course. My first win, and I have been playing here since 2007 as an amateur.
“Abu Dhabi was above expectations for me to be honest.
"I thought if I could have shot four rounds under par and just saw some good, positive signs in my game, I would have went away happy. I guess that has changed the way I view this week a little bit. I know that my game is in good enough shape to contend and try to win.”
World number nine Sergio Garcia is the defending champion and he is coming off a win last week at the Singapore Open.
Another winner from last week in the field is England’s Tommy Fleetwood, who successfully defended his title in Abu Dhabi.
Also playing in Dubai are world number 10 Henrik Stenson of Sweden, who won the tournament in 2007, and world number 17 Pat Perez of the US, who has already won once and finished in top-five twice in six PGA Tour starts this season.
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Sergio Garcia's victory at the U.S. Masters on Sunday was received with delight throughout the golf world, but it seems unlikely to lead to a subsequent flood of major titles for the Spaniard.
That is not to say 37-year-old Garcia will fail to add to his first major win, but the best players are too evenly matched in the post-Tiger Woods era to realistically expect him to suddenly run up his major tally in his late 30s.
The top 20 or so players are all eminently capable of winning when in top form. Woods may have been capable of winning with his "B" game, but no-one else is, not even current number one Dustin Johnson.
Since Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth combined to win four consecutive majors at the end of 2014 and start of 2015, seven players have shared the spoils in the past seven majors, much as it used to be before Woods.
Garcia and Masters runner-up Justin Rose were ranked 11th and 14th respectively in the world last week, but it was hardly a surprise they ended up separating themselves from the field, especially in the absence of Johnson, who pulled out at the last minute with a back injury.
A little luck is often required to win, and if Rose’s seven-foot birdie putt at the 72nd hole had toppled in instead of grazing the cup, the Englishman probably would be celebrating getting halfway to the career grand slam, after winning the 2013 U.S. Open.
Indeed, Garcia’s victory hardly elevated him to the top echelon of favourites in betting for the next major, the U.S. Open at Erin Hills in Wisconsin in June.
Betting website Centrebet on Monday had Dustin Johnson a 7/1 favourite, followed at 8/1 by McIlroy and Jason Day, with Jordan Spieth at 9/1.
Garcia was 33/1, similar to his pre-Masters odds.
But he will not care as he celebrates an occasion that he thought might never come. He was not the only one.
Former European Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley struggled to retain his composure during the live television commentary on Sky Sports.
“It was kind of difficult,” McGinley said on Golf Channel on Monday. “To be honest I had a big lump in my throat.
“I was so happy for him I can’t tell you how happy. I’ve been through so much with him. I felt his pain (after previous near-misses). He’s an emotional person. I know how much it hurts him.”
It seemed as though most of the gallery at Augusta felt the same way, as the Garcia who made a rude hand gesture to a spectator who heckled him at the 2002 U.S. Open was transformed into an almost beloved figure who seemed to feed off the crowd’s affection.
"Sergio often feels like he's not supported the way he would like to be here in America," said the vanquished Rose.
"It was encouraging to see the crowd get behind him. I think they realised that he paid his dues, he's been close so many times and they probably were pulling for him to pull through on this occasion."
McGinley, meanwhile, admitted that he was starting to wonder whether Garcia would ever close the deal.
“I think his career deserved a major and we were all worried his career wasn’t going to end with one,” the Irishman said.
“And to see it be done on such a grand stage, in such an impressive way, anyone who knows Sergio would have felt the same.”
(Reporting by Andrew Both in Cary, North Carolina; Editing by Larry Fine)
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AUGUSTA, Georgia -- Sergio Garcia had long been his harshest critic, once saying he was not good enough to win a major, but on Sunday he buried decades of heartbreak and meltdowns by clinching a stirring win at the U.S. Masters.
The Spaniard stamped himself as one of the game's greats in remarkable fashion by overcoming some final round, back-nine adversity to claim his maiden major title in a playoff with friend and European Ryder Cup team mate Justin Rose.
"It's been such a long time coming," said Garcia, who missed a five-foot putt for the win at the end of regulation before rolling in a 12-foot birdie to claim victory on the first extra hole. "I felt today the calmest I ever felt on a major Sunday.
"Even after making a couple bogeys I was still very positive and I still believed. I am so happy."
Positive, happy and calm were not attributes one would normally have used to describe the 37-year-old Garcia on the golf course prior to this week.
Throughout his career, Garcia struggled to live up to lofty expectations laid upon his 19-year-old shoulders when he turned professional in 1999.
Considered by many to likely become the primary rival of Tiger Woods, Garcia developed a reputation for struggling in the biggest moments.
One of the most heartbreaking disappointments came in 2007 when his eight-foot par putt to win the British Open spun out of the cup and left him bent over in disbelief.
And while Garcia possessed the talent to put himself in the mix at golf's premier events -- as his 22 top-10 finishes coming into this week attests -- his mental toughness was questioned.
After falling out of contention in the third round of the 2012 Masters, Garcia famously delivered a brutal self assessment in which he said did not have what it takes to win a major.
"I don't have the thing I need to have," Garcia said at the time. "I've come to the conclusion that I need to play for second or third place ... in any major."
But the eve of this year's first major, Garcia received an inspirational message from compatriot and boyhood idol Jose Maria Olazabal, a twice Masters winner, saying he believed in him, stay calm and do not get rattled like in the past.
Garcia clearly took those words to heart, most notably in the final round when on several occasions it looked like the wheels were about to fall off and another major title was about to slip through his grasp.
He stood at the sixth tee with a three-shot edge over Rose but three holes later was tied atop the leaderboard after the Englishman made three consecutive birdies.
After bogeys at 10 and 11, Garcia's tee shot at the par-five 13th landed under an azalea bush and was unplayable, forcing him to take a drop and possibly end his title bid.
But Garcia scrambled for a tournament-saving par and then made birdie at 14 and eagle at the par-five 15th after nearly holing out from the fairway to set up an epic finish.
"I knew I needed to make that putt to stay in it," Garcia said of his par-save at 13. "That putt really kind of got me even more confident and then I was able to make two great holes."
When he missed his putt at 18 it was hard not to recall the missed putt in 2007 at Carnoustie, where Garcia ultimately lost in a playoff.
But not this year. Not for a revived Garcia who said he had come to terms with the fact that a major title might never come.
"Because of where my head was at, sometimes I did think about whether I am ever going to win one. I've had so many good chances and either I lost them or someone has done something extraordinary to beat me," said Garcia.
"So it did cross my mind but lately I have been getting some good help and I've been thinking a little different, a little bit more positive and kind of accepting that if for whatever reason it didn't happen, my life is still going to go on.
"But it's happened," Garcia added with a laugh.
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Jason Day has proven to be one of those players who seem predestined to wear the Green Jacket one day.
It appears he has to wait for that moment a little while longer.
The Australian world No. 3, whose career is closely followed by many Filipinos because of his parental roots in Leyte, couldn't get his game going in Day 2 of the Masters on Friday, finishing with 5 bogeys and a double bogey for a 76, and barely hanging on for a spot in the weekend rounds.
After 2 rounds, Day is at 6-over 150, tied for 45th place with 8 others.
He is 10 shots off the lowest score, held currently by 4 people -- Americans Charley Hoffman and Rickie Fowler, Thomas Pieters of Belgium and Sergio Garcia, the Spaniard who is the sentimental favorite to win the title.
According to Golf Channel, Day came into Augusta National aware that he wouldn't be at 100%.
In the lead-up to the Masters, Day spent time taking care of his mother Dening, who is battling lung cancer.
Garcia, winless in 73 major starts, joined Fowler, Hoffman and Pieters in the biggest 36-hole Masters leader logjam since 1973.
A second day of high winds left the top pack -- all seeking a first major win -- level on 4-under par 140 through two rounds.
"It was going to be try and hang on and make sure you didn't play yourself out of the tournament with scoring conditions coming this weekend," Fowler said.
A host of big names -- including second-ranked Rory McIlroy, reigning Olympic champion Justin Rose and past Masters winners Adam Scott, Phil Mickelson and Jordan Spieth -- lurk within five strokes, setting up a mouth-watering weekend showdown in calmer conditions.
"I'm excited about the challenges that this weekend is going to bring, and hopefully I'll step up to them and I'll be able to be up there on Sunday with a solid chance at winning," Garcia said.
Not since a storm-struck Masters 44 years ago ended in a Monday finish had so many people shared the midway lead.
Garcia, who hopes to end his major drought Sunday on what would have been the 60th birthday of the late icon Seve Ballesteros, opened with three birdies and played even from there to stake his claim to the top.
"These first two rounds are probably the best I've ever played at Augusta," Garcia said. "I feel like I played great. I made a lot of great putts.
(With a report from Agence France-Presse)
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Jason Day finished the opening round of the Masters with a 2-over 74 on Thursday, a score he shared with 14 others.
The Australian golfer, whose mother hails from Leyte, fell into some problems early, finishing No. 3 and No. 11 with a bogey and double bogey respectively.
The world No. 3 recovered a bit with birdies on Nos. 15 and 16, but stumbled again on the 17th with another bogey.
Former Masters champion Charl Schwartzel of South Africa and 2-time champion Bubba Watson of the US also ended up with a 74.
Day, whose best finish at Augusta National was a tie for 2nd in 2011, was 9 shots behind Charley Hoffman, who shot a 65.
The unheralded Hoffman took a four-shot lead after high winds punished the world's top golfers and favorite Dustin Johnson withdrew injured.
Hoffman, 40, posted a 7-under in conditions described by one former Masters winner as "borderline" unplayable.
He snatched the lead over 2nd-placed fellow American William McGirt on a day of high drama that saw world No. 1 Johnson pull out following a freak accident.
Hoffman's 4-stroke lead is the largest at the Masters after 18 holes since 1955, when Jack Burke led by the same margin over Julius Boros.
In the difficult conditions, Hoffman said he set out to shoot for par but "got a little bit lucky."
"For lack of any better words, it was a dream," he said.
England's Lee Westwood, 43, still looking for a major title after 75 attempts, was in 3rd place a shot further back on 70 on a day when top contenders suffered in difficult conditions on the 7,435-yard Augusta National course.
Johnson agonized for 24 hours before pulling out after a serious fall on the eve of the tournament left him in pain from a lower back injury.
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